Gathering grapes to make jelly

Our concord grapes are ready to pick.  I wait until most of the bunch ripens to pick them.  The early summer drought kept the grapes from getting large.  But they are juicy, and very tart - just right for making good grape jelly.


So today I got up early and went out to pick the grapes.  They hang in big bunches and are easy to pull off the vine.  We only have one Concord Grape vine and this produces all the grapes we need for making jelly, most of which I give away for gifts, etc.


I use the low sugar recipe and put the jelly in pint jars.  It's quite a process and I allot an entire day to making jelly.   Sometimes I just get the juice from the grapes and freeze it to make jelly in the winter.  That's probably what I will do today as I have some other things I have to do that would get in the way of jelly making.


I will wash the grapes after I pick them off the stems.  This time I'm going to try crushing them in my food processor before I put them in water and boil them to get the juice out of the hulls.  I let the juice cool and put it in freezer bags, just the right amount for one batch of jelly.  You have to make jelly in single batches or it won't jell properly and you have grape syrup!  I usually end up with one batch of syrup every year.  Good on pancakes, so I don't discard it.


Just behind me in the first photo you can see other vines; dark red or wine-colored muscadines/scuppernongs.
They also make good jelly but usually we just eat them.  And next to that vine is my favorite - the sweet, bronze scuppernongs.  Beginning mid August, we can go to the "vineyard" throughout the day and pick and eat.  We can usually find these little gems hidden among the leaves until late September.


There's nothing better than "going to the scupperlin' vine" for a good snack.  I have memories of doing this in my childhood also.  When we lived with Mama and Papa Wilson (until I was 11), the scuppernong vine
was on a trellis and they didn't prune it and the vine reached the ground on all sides.  My sisters and I made an opening to get inside the "cave" and this was where we would go to play.  It was dark inside, and usually much cooler than outside.


I learned in my Master Gardening class that you trim the vines back to the "mother vine" in early spring and you will get grapes on the new growth, and not have tangled vines that make it hard to get to the grapes.  I did this and it works!  Jim thought I was destroying the vines and couldn't bear to watch me prune the limbs away in February.  Now he's a believer in what I did!


I design and print labels to put on my jars of jelly. Sometimes I pack some of my homemade jellies, jams and preserves (especially pear and fig) and use as a door prize for various occasions, and my gift is always popular.

Last day of vacation

We arrived at the north central Alabama Welcome Center late Sunday evening and spent the night at Athens. The AL Welcome Center is beautiful and recently won a beautification award. A large rocket sits on the grounds, welcoming people to AL and nearby "Rocket City" at Huntsville.


Near the rocket are two large war memorials; Vietnam and Korea. I read the names on each memorial and found a former high school classmate on the Vietnam memorial, from Coffee County, Joseph M. (Mack) Moore.



The Korean memorial has the name of another classmate's brother, Roy Hattaway from Coffee County. His sister Nadine Fuller (a classmate of mine) did not know about the memorial. I'm glad we took pictures for her.



We decided to get off I-65 on the way home and go to the Space Center in Huntsville. The last time were were there was in 1986. You can only imagine the advances made in space during the past 25 years. Things that seemed like yesterday were displayed as obsolete now!

We were shocked that it cost $30 each to go to the Space Museum! And that didn't include the IMAX theater and some other attractions. It did include the Star Wars travelling exhibit which was great. I really enjoyed seeing the characters and learning how they operated. Here I am standing with one of my favorite characters, Chewbaca. We saw a model of him without his fur covering and all the millions of little wars and transistors inside that made him appear as a real live person (thing?). There were so many young kids touring the exhibit and watching them as they interacted with all the exhibits was so much fun. I was shocked to learn that the first Star Wars movie was made 33 years ago!


We spent about 1/2 day touring the space center but it was worth it. I'm glad we made a "spur of the moment" decision to go by and check it out. Star Wars was definitely the drawing card.


We left Huntsville and headed home to Elba, arriving home around 5 p.m. It was so good to be back home after having been gone for almost a week.


Yesterday we called Jim's cousin in KY to tell her we had such a good time, only to learn that on Tuesday, July 22, they had 6" of rain that night and flash flooding took homes, bridges, roads, etc. in the area we had visited. Just 4 days after we were there for the family reunion. It was so sad to look at the places we had just visited and the roads we had traveled.


Enjoy the present, forget about the past, and don't worry about the future because we don't know what the future holds. (Nobody said this; I just made it up!!) 

More vacation photos, etc.

We drove to Lewis County on Friday afternoon and got off at Olive

Hill, KY and traveled north about 20 miles to Jim's cousin Geraldine's house near Head of Grassy. She invited us to have dinner with her and her children and a cousin. What a good meal!

Lloyd Osborne, Aunt Zelma's son, was in charge of cooking barbecue pork and ribs for lunch. We found his cooker quite unique. No gas or electric grill for him. We had regular reunion fare - and too much of it. The fresh veggies were my favorite.

We stayed in the area, visiting that evening with Lloyd and Shirley who live near Vanceburg, on the Ohio River.

After dinner we traveled 30 more miles to Grayson, KY, the closest motel. We got up on Sat. morning, had a late breakfast and then went back to Geraldine's house around noon. She had announced that we would be eating at 1 p.m. the reunion was to be outside, even the food. It was so HOT. We ate and most of us went inside to watch an old movie that Larry put on a DVD for us to watch. All 8 of the brothers and sisters were in attendance at the reunion in 1993, the year the video was made. Four are now deceased and 4 are still living.

We had breakfast at the motel and left to head home around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday. We traveled west to Lexington, when we took off on a road that would ultimately connect with I-65 south.

Our first stop was at My Old Kentucky Home, the home that inspired Stephen F Foster to write the song. It is a nice state park.

We left there and traveled to Abraham Lincoln country. We saw a replica of his boyhood home (a one-room log cabin), a few miles from where he was born. He was born in Sinking Springs and the family moved to another farm 4 years later. The birthplace home is inside the building pictured here, with the front of the building looking like Lincoln's monument in Wash., DC. We could not go inside the museum to see his birthplace home since they were working on the interior for a couple of more weeks.

Pictured here is the source of their drinking water, called sinking springs. You had to go down some steps to a pool to collect the water that dripped off the rocks.

Our Vacation - continued

Cumberland Gap Falls, KY State Park was not easy to get to. It was several miles west of I-65 on a narrow, winding road. You park at a Visitor's Center and walk behind the center, and Voila! the Cumberland River is rushing along and falling over the rocks.

I've never been to Niagra Falls but I read that the Cumberland Gap Falls are similar, just smaller.

We started off at the head of the falls, and at this stage they were not too impressive.

As you continued down from the falls, they seemed to get larger, and noisier. Lots of mist came up from below, and was refreshing on such a hot day.

Farther down stream, bus loads of young people came to put in their canoes, rafts, etc. to ride down the river. I have no desire to go white water rafting or tubing.

This state park is a well-kept secret or at least I had never heard of it. There was a lodge, as well as cabins within the park. A large swimming pool was on the premises as well as horse stables for horseback riding. 


What a great place to spend time with a family. I wonder if they have TV and WiFi? Maybe not!

Our Summer Vacation comes to an end today

Five days away from home is a long time when the temperature hovers in the high 90's every day. We were hoping for cooler weather in the mountains but that didn't happen.

We left home on Wed., July 14 and travelled to Chattanooga, TN the first day. We stayed at Stonefort B&B downtown near the Tennessee River and all the downtown attractions. The B&B was listed as Boutique European, and indeed it was. It had beautiful old furniture, lovely paintings, etc. and the breakfast was so good. Had to have a stool to get into the bed as it was so high off the floor, but very comfortable. Check out the B&B website to view the rooms - under "Accommodations" - http://www.stonefortinn.com/ortinn.com/

The free electric shuttle buses would take you to all the sights downtown. We checked out the Chattanooga Choo Choo, then off to the Aquarium (too late to spend time there plus it cost $29.95
each so we passed that up since we could only stay for an hour).

We walked along the river late in the evening and watched the sunset behind Lookout Mountain. Then we stopped in at Mellow Mushroom and ate pizza (it was so noisy but fun).

Thursday, July 15 - Jim's birthday. We ate a delicious European

style breakfast at the B&B and then drove a few miles across the

river to ride the Incline up the side of the mountain. That was quite an experience. We had to ride it back down the mountain because we had left our car at the bottom! We drove a few more miles to Rock City (which we had seen several times before when used to take the boys there many years ago). Our purpose for going there this time was for me to buy a "See Rock City" birdhouse! Click on photo to enlarge.

We drove back down the mountain to the Riverfront to board the Southern Belle Riverboat for a luncheon cruise on the Tenn. River. I slipped a note to one of the waiters that it was Jim's birthday and after dining on prime rib, and other good food, the band stopped playing and the narrator said "We have a celebrity aboard today. Would Jim Gilmer please stand up and let's sing Happy Birthday to him"... and everybody clapped and sang. He was a good sport and waved to the crowd. I bet they wondered just who the celebrity really was?

After the boat ride, we got in the car and drove to Cumberland Gap, TN to spend the night in a little town where "time stands still". Stayed at the Cumberland Gap Inn and it was very nice, but had been around awhile. At least the WiFi worked here which wasn't always working in the other places we stayed. We took our laptop along and checked our email to see if there were messages from our sons in London. They got together for dinner in London one evening. Bill, Caroline and Nerissa were there on vacation (went to see relatives and take in the Latitude Music Festival 2010) and Ron was there on a business trip. They never see each other in the USA!

We had dinner in the only cafe in Cumberland Gap and it was very good food. The building must be over 100 years old. One side of the cafe was set up for dinner dining and there was someone there playing the piano - beautiful dinner music. We went back there Fri. morning for a good mountain breakfast before heading for the Cumberland Gap National Park nearby. Click photo to enlarge.

Cumberland Gap National Park is in Ky. You leave TN and go through a tunnel through the mountain to get to the park, in another state! Just down the road from the hotel a couple of miles, and you would be in Virginia.

We learned a lot of history at the Park Headquarters and went on some of the trails. Went to the top of Pinnacle Mountain to observe the "pass" or gap between two mountains where the pioneers crossed into KY from TN and VA. Too bad it was so hot and humid that day. We didn't stay on the trails too long.

We left Cumberland Gap after lunch and headed to northeast KY via Lexington and the Blue Grass country. Our next stop would be at Cumberland Gap Falls west of Elizabethtown, KY.

It's a L-O-N-G Hot summer!

This has been such a hot, humid summer and the year was half over on July 9th. We are on a downhill slide now but the temperature is still near 100 every day. You get up early and get things done outside by 9 a.m. if you can. It's already hot when Pat and I go walking around 6:20 a.m. and we can only walk for 40 minutes. I get back home and drink a cup of hot coffee and eat breakfast while I cool off in the air conditioned breakfast room.


I decided this summer was the time to tackle my recipe collection and put them in a cookbook form. These are recipes I have gotten from friends and are written on backs of envelopes, some on emails that are typed, others are torn from newspapers, etc. If we liked them, I would keep the recipes.

Many of the cookie and dessert recipes are favorites of the granddaughters. So, I decided to put them into a cookbook and give each of the 5 girls a copy. I chose a photo of Katie (now almost 19) when she was visiting us one summer at "Grandma Camp" and making a batch of chocolate chip cookies. The girls always want to bake something when they come to visit. Their dads (our sons) are also good cooks. I think their skills were learned during boy scout camps.


I have almost finished putting recipes in the computer and getting ready to print a good copy to take to Office Depot and have printed to make my cookbooks. I made the cover and will use clear plastic over the picture of Katie. I have a comb binding machine and will bind the cookbooks myself. Hope to have these finished by Christmas to put in their stockings.


They all have favorites but I think the most requested is Wagon Wheel Cookies, a recipe I found in a magazine a couple of years ago. They're so easy to make and taste a little like a brownie; soft and chewy with powdered sugar on the outside.

WAGON WHEEL COOKIES

A chocolate cookie that tastes like a brownie; soft and chewable.
Includes unsweetened baking chocolate, eggs, oil, flour and sugar.

Recipe: Approximately 3 dozen cookies

½ cup Enova oil (or canola oil)
4 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate (not chips)
Melted in microwave and cooled
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, slightly beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
1/ 2 tsp. salt
2 ½ cups flour, sifted
2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup powdered sugar

With a double boiler, melt the chocolate and cool to room temperature. (I use a glass bowl and melt the chocolate in the microwave; one minute at the time until it softens)
Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.
Mix together the oil, chocolate and sugar; mix well.
Blend in eggs, in fourths, mixing well after each addition.
Add vanilla.
Stir in dry ingredients.
Cover and place in refrigerator and chill for several hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Portion dough into pieces and shape into 1 ½ inch balls.
Roll in powdered sugar and place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Getting ready to go to college - then and now

Going to college in 1952 was quite different from today!


I went to Washington, DC during the summer of 1952 after graduating from high school, and worked for the Navy. I saved my money to go to college that fall. I remember buying some twin sheets, a blanket and green chenille bedspread for my dorm room and some light green organdy ruffled curtains for the window (I thought they were beautiful).


I didn't decide to go to Troy State (now Troy University) until I returned home late August and learned that my friends had decided to go to Troy instead of Auburn. So, I decided to go to Troy but had not applied, etc. That's another story that I wrote about last year.

I lived in Shackelform Dorm (not co-ed then). Boys were only allowed in the lobby at certain times of the day. My room was upstairs right over the front entrance. A big magnolia tree provided some shade from the hot sun in the afternoon. We didn't have air conditioning. I don't remember even having a fan!


I'm sure they provided us with a list of items to bring, but it probably was a short list. Not at all like the list printed below that you bring to school in 2010. Certainly no electronic items, telephones, TV, etc. I think my roommate had a radio. Very basic stuff.

One thing I remember taking to school is a pair of hand-embroidered pillow cases my mother made for me during the summer. She liked to do handwork but with 7 kids (I was the oldest) she didn't have much time to do needlework. So, these pillowcases were a "labor of love" that she made for me and I still have them (58 years later). I take them out sometimes and rub my hand over the pretty pink embroidery and imagine my mother working on these, probably late at night when everybody had gone to bed. She wrapped them and gave them to me when I was packing to go off to school. I was so happy to have embroidered pillowcases. )



I remember when our granddaughter Nerissa was getting ready to go to Clemson and how she spent the summer getting things for her apartment. She and her roommate had color-coordinated all the furnishings: hot pink and black I think. I helped her make a monogrammed pillow for her bed. Towels, shower curtain, etc. all had to match. Having sent our boys off to school with things we already had on hand, I had not gone through furnishing a dorm or apartment and was amazed at how much time and effort goes into "getting ready" to live away from home.


Note: I only went to Troy State for 4 quarters. I graduated with honors from Texas A&M at Commerce (TX) 20 years later with a B.S. in Home Economics. Also graduated from Paris Jr College in Paris, TX with an Associate Degree in Science. Attended Francis Marion College in Florence, SC to obtain a teacher's certificate and taught school one year before moving to GA.


This note from the Troy University site:
Suggestions of Items You Might Want to Get for Your Room (in 2010):
(Items written in red either didn't exist in 1952 or we didn't own them. Shared a common bath and bathroom at end of hall with others and took turns cleaning the toilets, etc. School furnished paper, mop, broom,etc.)
Telephone (public pay phone on each floor of dorm)
Telephone Calling Card
Toilet Tissue/Paper Towels
Cleaning Supplies such as stove/oven cleaner; toilet bowl cleaner, shower cleaner; broom, mop Air freshener (you just opened your windows to air out the rooms)
Deodorant/ Soap
Desk/Closet Organizer
Shampoo/Conditioner
Bath Towels/ Bath Cloths Floor Mat For Shower
Area Rug for Room (rooms had hard wood floors; some had throw rugs but I didn't)
Dishes (pots, pans, spoons, forks, plates,cups) (no microwaves back then; ate in cafeteria; food banned in rooms)
Flip Flops (for bathroom)
Pillows
Blanket/Comforter (Twin Size)
Bed Linen (sheets) Twin Size Bed
Toothpaste
Toothbrush Laundry basket Detergent (like Tide or Gain) Raincoat/Umbrella
Clothes hanger
Alarm Clock/Radio 3M Command Adhesive Strips
TV (cable Ready) – no larger than a 19”
Bottle/Can Opener
Computer
Ruler Calculator
Pens/Pencils Pencil Sharpener
Medicine (Tylenol or Advil) Note: went to infirmary for all medications
Iron/small ironing board